Hello,
I am the proud owner of a 93 940 Turbo EX. This is my first Volvo and I'm warming up to it despite the fact that less than two weeks after getting it I discovered the alternator needed to be replaced, the belts were shot, the distributer shaft was starting to wobble, and on and on. At least the body is in good shape, the engine looks clean, and the tires are newish.

I'm pretty good with basic maintenance but I am in no way what you would call 'a car guy.' I've looked in the archives but didn't see a problem like mine described. So here goes:

With the engine idling, say at a stop light, and the fan on, the engine will bog down for a second or two and then recover to its regular idle. If I turn the fan off, the problem appears to go away. I turn the fan back on, wait a few seconds, then I hear a click that seems to come from behind the switch and the engine bogs down. It's not enough to stall out the car but I don't want this to get worse before it gets better.

Also, and I don't know if it's related, but when the engine is warming up in the morning it will sit and idle for a few minutes and then for about 5 to 10 seconds the engine will rev up and down between 500 and 1000 RPMs before settling to just under 1000 rpms where it idles just fine.

At stops the idling engine wavers a littlebut having the fan on exacerbates the problem.

I'd like to get this fixed before it gets really cold because this is my first car with a real heater and it gets a bit nippy in the winteraround where I live.

And, of course, there are a few more issues with the car but I won't address those yet because they don't seem to effect the overall performance of the vehicle.

Thanks for any advice and tips.

zippy_940

 

sounds like it's a little behind on the maintenance. first thing i'd try for the idling problem would be cleaning the throttle plate. it's better to take it off and soak it, but you can just clean it on the car with a rag and some carb spray if you're not sure on adjusting the throttle position sensor. a set of plugs might not hurt either. we recommend either volvo's or bosch supers.

 

I would just give it a little love. Get it up on it's maintence. Replace the spark plugs, air filter (I really like the K&N reusable ones that you can just clean and put back in), fuel filter, oil change of course, clean the distributor cap and rotor and the throttle body. These are all quick simple things that will greatly affect the performance of the car. This should help your idleing problem. I would also check your vacuum hoses that could be the problem.

 

Thanks for the advice and support. I've found that I can leave the fan off and the car still heats up nicely inside on a chilly morning so I'm going to leave things well enough there for now.

-PH